The impact of home working on the health of working people and health inequalities in the population

This work has been commissioned to provide an independent review of existing research to establish what is known, what gaps exist in the evidence base, and to provide national and local policy makers with the best available evidence to identify the health and health inequality impacts of working at home; or ‘home as the place of work’ (including home/office hybrid working arrangements).

The aim is to identify the health and health inequality impacts of working at home for the home worker and the wider population. The first stage of this work involved developing a mapping review informed by outline literature searching and stakeholder consultation. The mapping review has informed the search terms and inclusion criteria for this review and helped to define the data extraction and synthesis processes to be undertaken.

Following the mapping review, a mixed methods systematic review synthesising qualitative, quantitative and observational data to identify the health and health inequality impacts of working at home will now be undertaken.

The results of the systematic review will be summarised in an evidence informed model which will be validated with stakeholder consultation. In consultation with the stakeholders, the review and accompanying model will form the basis for evidence-based recommendations for policy (including guidance to employers), service development and future research. The final report and all associated outputs will be delivered by the end of March 2022.